1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus including a NAND flash memory and to an information processing method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, NOR flash memories are used to allow storing program codes for microprocessors and electrically rewriting the contents of the program codes. On the other hand, NAND flash memories, which are much less expensive than NOR flash memories, are used to store data.
NAND flash memories, however, have the problem that bit error could occasionally occur because of their structure. Thus, error that has occurred must be corrected, for example, by error correcting code (ECC). Error correction by hardware requires circuitry of a large scale since error correcting algorithms are complex.
A NAND flash memory includes a block where it is ensured, by restricting the number of times of rewriting allowed, that bit error does not occur. This block is referred to as a first block. The first block has a capacity on the order of 8 KB, which is not sufficient to store a program. Furthermore, since random access is very slow in a NAND flash memory, performance is degraded when a program is executed on a NAND flash memory.